Summer camps for kids

The Maggie Valley Club will hold a Summer Kid’s Camp program from June 18-22 and from July 16-20. These one-week camps begin at 10 a.m. and end at 3 p.m. Lunch is provided.

The camp provides traditional camp experiences focused on building friendships and confidence. The activities include sports, cooking, arts and crafts, swimming and more.

The cost is $125 for members and $175 for non-members. Space is limited.

828.926.4826.

Summer camp for kids to be offered at WCU

A summer camp for kids is being held July 23-27 at Western Carolina University. The Good Old Time Summer Camp is for children ages 9 through 13.

Participants will attend the camp from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. It will provide an opportunity for children to explore the region’s culture, including the Cherokee and pioneer experience.

Participants will investigate and create crafts such as mask-making, weaving, candle-making, open hearth cooking and pottery. They also will hear a performance by an old-time musician and go on a field trip to local sites of natural and historical interest.

The camp, sponsored in part by the Jackson County Arts Council, will culminate with a day of show-and-tell to allow the children to present their activities and creations to their families.

The fee is $90 per child, and daily lunch in a WCU dining hall is included. http://learn.wcu.edu or 828.227.7397.

Reading Room

Like some other readers I know, my taste in books these last 20 years or so has shifted from fiction to non-fiction, especially history, biography, and literary studies. I still follow certain novelists — Anne Tyler, Pat Conroy, James Lee Burke, and others — and still review novels for this paper, but find that works of fiction simply don’t appeal as much as when I was in my twenties and thirties, when I read stacks of novels and poetry.